The present invention relates to a weather strip for an automobile operatively coupled on a body of an automobile at a peripheral edge of an opening corresponding to a door. The weather strip makes elastic contact with the door, when the door is closed, to thereby seal an inner-cabin side of the automobile from an outer-cabin side thereof.
As shown in FIG. 6, a weather strip 10 is operatively coupled on the body of the automobile at the peripheral edge of the opening corresponding to the back door 100. The weather strip 10 makes an elastic contact with the back door 100 when the back door 100 is closed.
As shown in FIG. 7, the weather strip 10 includes an installation base member 11 and a hollow seal member 12 integrally molded with the installation base member 11. The installation base member 11 has a substantially U-shape cross section provided with an opening and is inserted over a flange 101 from a side of the opening. The flange 101 is formed along a periphery-edges of the opening corresponding to the back door 100. The hollow seal member 12 is provided to an inner wall 11c of the installation base member 11 and is arranged to elastically contact the back door 100 to thereby seal the inner-cabin side of the automobile from the outer-cabin side
The installation base member 11 includes a first side wall 11a, a second side wall 11b and a plurality of protruding pieces 13 provided to inner face of the first and second side walls 11a, 11b. The protruding pieces 13 grab the flange 101. The first side wall 11a is provided at tip end thereof with a small lip 14 and at an outer side thereof with a seal lip 15. The second side wall 11b is provided at an outer surface thereof with a decorative lip 16. A sponge or a butyl sealant is attached to an inner surface of the inner wall 11c of the installation base member 11. The sponge or the butyl sealant abuts and encloses a tip end of the flange 101 to thereby prevent corrosion of the flange 101 and intrusion of water. A core material 18 made of metal or rigid resin is embedded in the installation base member 11 for reinforcement of the installation base member 11.
As shown in FIG. 7, in the weather strip 10 for the automobile configured as described above, when dirt 60 containing snow melting salt, for example, is stuck between the first side wall 11a positioned at an outer side of the installation base member 11 and the back door 100, an electric circuit 80 is formed that circulates through the back door 100, the flange 101, the protruding piece 13 provided to the installation base member 11, the first side wall 11a, the dirt 60 containing snow melting salt, and again the back door 100.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, if snow or water 70 containing snow melting salt, for example, remains between the second side wall 11b positioned at an inner side of the installation base member 11 and the hollow seal member 12, another electric circuit 90 is formed that circulates through the back door 100, the snow or water 70, the decorative lip 16, the second side wall 11b, the protruding piece 13 provided to the installation base member 11, the flange 101 and again the back door 100.
Thus formed electric circuits 80, 90 could cause the portion 110 (FIG. 7) and the portion 120 (FIG. 8) of the back door 100, through which an electricity flows, to be damaged, and the coatings of the portions 110, 120 could be peeled off, leading to the inner side steel of the back door 100 to be exposed, and resulting in a generation of corrosion and rust in the back door 100.
Besides the abovementioned configurations, there is a known weather strip for an automobile that includes a hollow seal member partially coated with an insulation layer. This configuration is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-509108, for example.
Unlike the present invention, the invention disclosed in the abovementioned patent publication is such that a rubber member that is electrically conductive and can be heated is used for a cover seal part and a wiper blade in order to melt frozen water. With this configuration, the insulation layer partially covering the cover seal part, etc. prevents an electrical shock of a user and a damage caused by corrosion.
Specifically, the invention of the patent publication is designed to partially cover a member to be electrically conductive with an insulation layer. Such a configuration does not correspond to the configuration described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8, in which the electric circuits 80, 90 formed by the dirt 60 or the snow or water 70 containing snow melting salt that is stuck or remains between the installation base member 11 and the back door 100 are shut down so as to prevent corrosion. In addition, the patent publication does not present such an attention or consideration, at all.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a weather strip for an automobile, which weather strip is able to shut down an electric circuit that can be formed caused by an intrusion of snow, water, etc. to thereby effectively prevent generation of corrosion.